1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate generally to browsing and selecting content items, such as images, videos, music files, etc. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to graphical user interfaces that provide improved navigability by collapsing views of content items.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Electronic devices commonly have the ability to send, receive, and produce electronic multimedia. For example, a smart phone may send and receive digital photographs. A smart phone may also include a digital camera that takes digital photographs. It has become common for smart phone cameras to take pictures with increasing size. These digital photographs carry enough information to render bold colors, sharp contrast, and high levels of visual clarity.
Electronic devices that send, receive, and produce electronic multimedia (i.e., audio files, visual files) also typically have the ability to store the electronic multimedia. For example, a smart phone that takes digital photographs can also store those same digital photographs. Over time, an electronic device may be used to store large amounts of electronic multimedia. Users are often dismayed at how quickly the data storage of their electronic devices is filled.
Additionally, it has become increasingly common for a user to have multiple electronic devices that send, receive, and generate electronic media. A user may have a smart phone, a tablet, and a laptop that are all capable of sending, receiving, and generating electronic media. For example, the user may frequently take digital photographs with a smart phone. Then as the data storage on the smart phone fills up, the user may shuffle some digital photographs off the smartphone onto a laptop. The process of moving electronic media back and forth between electronic devices in order to free up data storage can be cumbersome and time consuming.
For this reason, it is increasingly common for a user to utilize additional storage in order to create a central repository for all the electronic media spread across the user's multiple electronic devices. External hard drives and cloud-based storage are two common types of additional storage that are used for this purpose. While utilizing additional storage may free up data storage on a user's electronic devices, the process of selecting electronic media files for transfer typically remains cumbersome and time-consuming.
The process of selecting electronic media files for transfer between electronic devices, to additional storage, to social media, or for printing is typically problematic in several ways. For example, a user who wants to only select a subset of the electronic media files on the electronic device must usually select that subset one-by-one. If this one-by-one selection is being performed on a touch screen of a hand held device, the user must typically go through and select each desired electronic media file individually. When a hand held device contains a large number of digital photographs, selecting individual photographs can be time-consuming and otherwise tedious.
Additionally, when a user is selecting individual electronic media files from a list or group of files in a selection interface, it may not be immediately clear what the electronic media is from the name of the electronic media file. For example, digital photographs are generally stored in files that are simply named with a timestamp that matches the date and time the digital photograph was taken. This naming convention generally offers no information as to the content or quality of the digital photograph. For this reason it has become common for selection interfaces to include thumbnail images.
Even though a thumbnail image includes a version of the image, the thumbnail image is usually not large enough to see the details of the image. This is especially true when several files are very similar. In order to see the details of the image, a user will generally open a larger preview of the image. Unfortunately, opening the larger preview typically requires the user to exit the selection interface. This is problematic when the user has already selected multiple files, as leaving the selection interface typically causes all the previously made selections to disappear upon returning to the selection interface. The process of selecting, opening for inspection, and re-selecting is typically cumbersome, lengthy, and inefficient.
In addition to the foregoing, traditional user interfaces traditionally require various buttons or toolbars to transition between different user interfaces or to perform other actions. Such buttons and toolbars can clutter user interfaces and otherwise detract from a user experience. For example, the inclusion of buttons and toolbars can reduce the available space for displaying photographs or other content items. The clutter due to buttons and toolbars is magnified when the user interface is presented on a hand-held or other device with a limited display size.
Thus, there are several disadvantages to current methods and system for browsing, selecting, and inspecting electronic files using conventional user interfaces.